Gabriel Calzada

Gabriel Calzada Alvarez

Credentials

Background

Gabriel Calzada Alvarez is the founder and president of the Instituto Juan de Mariana, a libertarian think tank based in Spain. He has been an Associate Professor of Economics at King Juan Carlos University in Spain since 2004 and Vice-Director of the scholarly Procesos de Mercado. He has been a Rowley Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and is also a Fellow at the Centre for the New Europe.

He frequently appears on television broadcasts and has written for publications including Libertad Digital, the Spanish Herald, Expanses, Mises Daily, The Journal of Libertarian Studies, Procesos de Mercados, La Ilustracion Liberal, and Canarias Liberal. [2]

He is author of a controversial study titled “Study of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources” which made a number of disputed claims regarding green energy and job growth.

Stance on Climate Change

“[S]cientists are still uncertain how much human activity, through Co2 emissions, might be contributing to climate change in comparison to other factors like water vapour or solar activity. There is, however, a scientific consensus on the fact that, even if we froze carbon dioxide emissions as the Kyoto Protocol intended, warming would decrease barely 0.07 degrees centigrade.” [3]

Key Quotes

“Spain has already attempted to lead the world in a clean energy transformation. But our research shows that Spain's policies were economically destructive. […] Deliberately pursuing more expensive and less efficient energy in order to create green jobs has been the source of social harm and net job destruction, and many citizens of a nation are hurt when such policies are pursued.” [4]

“All the resources that have been taken from other parts of the economy and put into the creation of these jobs or the subsidy of renewable energy, if you look at how many jobs this amount of money created in the rest of the economy, you see that for every job that you have been creating, or subsidizing, you would have created 2.2 jobs in the rest of the economy.” [11]

Key Deeds

April, 2012

Gabriel Calzada was a keynote speaker at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation's 2013 “Atlas Experience.” [5]

June 4, 2010

Calzada discussed Spain's green job initiatives with the Frontier Center for Public Policy (FCPP). His belief is that “it is incredibly expensive to create a green job” and that green jobs are “”very inefficient.” [6]

Gabriel Calzada was an author of a study (PDF) titled “Study of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources” claiming that for each green job created in Spain, 2.2 jobs were destroyed as a result. Other authors included University Rey Juan Carlos researchers Raquel Merino Jara and Juan Ramón Rallo Julián and technical consultant José Ignacio García Bielsa. The study bore the letterhead of the University of Rey Juan Carlos where Calzada is Associate Professor, but was co-commissioned by the Instituto Juan de Mariana.

According to the study, “the Spanish/EU-style 'green jobs' agenda now being promoted in the U.S. in fact destroys jobs. […] The study’s results demonstrate how such 'green jobs' policy clearly hinders Spain’s way out of the current economic crisis, even while U.S. politicians insist that rushing into such a scheme will ease their own emergence from the turmoil.”

Calzada was invited to testify before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence by Republican James Sensenbrenner, where he stated that “Europe's experience actually suggests that this is precisely the wrong approach.” Gabriel Calzada later appeared on Fox News where both he and Sensenbrenner speak in support of the study. Josh Harkinson. [7], [8], [9]

Calzada's study was debunked by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which released a report (PDF) in response which came to the following conclusion:

“The analysis by the authors from King Juan Carlos University represents a significant divergence from traditional methodologies used to estimate employment impacts from renewable energy. In fact, the methodology does not reflect an employment impact analysis. Accordingly, the primary conclusion made by the authors – policy support of renewable energy results in net jobs losses – is not supported by their work.” [10]

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE

Features

A California family is suing the state for failing to protect their children from fracking.

At issue are the state’s new fracking regulations, which went into effect on July 1. Rodrigo Romo, the named plaintiff in the suit, says the rules discriminate against Latino children, like his daughters, because they are far more likely to go to school or live near a fracked well.

“Everyday my daughters go to school, they fear for their health and safety because of how close the fracking wells are to their schools,” Romo said in a...